An Incredible Story! The Intersection of Faith, Finance, and the Sanctity of Torah Restoration

When a Sephardi synagogue receives a windfall of $2 million, the very essence of faith and finance intertwines like the threads of a sacred tapestry. Reb Meilech Bidermans weaves a narrative that transcends the physical building of worship and pierces straight to the heart of religious devotion. What happens when the generous benefactor, who oversees the grand renovation, balks at the cost of rectifying a Torah riddled with errors? This isn't just a story about refurbishments; it's a profound look at the values we place on the cornerstones of our beliefs.

Cue the sofer, the unsung hero of our tale, caught between his duty to his craft and the startling devaluation of his sacred work. Tasked with a labor of love or a fool's errand, depending on how you look at it, our sofer and his friend face the ultimate question: Can you put a price on the divine word? Our episode spins into a tapestry of the unexpected, involving an emergency restroom break at a funeral home that leads to a mysterious summons to court, proving that the answers we seek are sometimes found in the most unforeseen places. An epic story from Reb Meilech: Discover the curious intersection where devotion, duty, and a schnitzel sandwich in Lakewood collide.

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Transcript

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So there was this big, fancy Sephardi shul that got a $2 million donation to rebuild the shul, enhance the shul, put in some fancy seating, improve the Aron new tapestry upon the Sephardi Torah, butz v'argaman.

00:00:22.882 --> 00:00:29.826
Think about, you know, the great grand Sephardic shuls, shosia, kadas v'ein, ones above and beyond a beautiful shul.

00:00:29.826 --> 00:00:35.043
And the gentleman who donated the money was the one overseeing the project.

00:00:35.043 --> 00:00:54.307
And it came to that gentleman's attention that while they were remaking the shul that maybe that he should send the Sefer Torah to also go through a check to make sure that it is taka, it is really kosher, no mistakes.

00:00:54.307 --> 00:00:56.506
Sure enough, they called in the sofer.

00:00:56.506 --> 00:00:58.948
This is an incredible story that Ramailich just told.

00:00:58.948 --> 00:01:08.751
And sure enough the sofer looks through it line by line and finds a plethora and bevy of mistakes.

00:01:08.751 --> 00:01:19.430
Rashes are too straight, lameds not with the right curve, not with the right street, there isn't the right engraving in the Torah.

00:01:19.430 --> 00:01:21.725
The state for Torah is a puzzle.

00:01:23.019 --> 00:01:27.251
The sofa gives a quote to the gentleman for what it would cost to go line by line and fix the Torah.

00:01:27.251 --> 00:01:30.186
It takes many, many hours.

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He said this is around a $5,000 project for the amount of work and the amount of time To which, in a very strange and odd turn of events.

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The gentleman was unwilling to hear of such a number.

00:01:42.930 --> 00:02:02.865
And even with the $2 million set to remake the shul, the gentleman, for whatever reason, when it came to the most important cause, the actual Torah, which the whole structure around it is really there to give honor to the Torah itself, when it was actually possible, the gentleman wasn't willing to pay the 5,000 to allocate the funds there.

00:02:02.865 --> 00:02:08.246
Not really sure what to do, kind of over time, tells the guy.

00:02:08.246 --> 00:02:11.086
Tells the gentleman you know, what can you afford?

00:02:11.086 --> 00:02:13.328
What are you willing to pay to do this project?

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And the guy says I'll give $500 for trying to make the tower right.

00:02:19.091 --> 00:02:23.270
So the sofa takes time to think about it.

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He says I'll get back to you.

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And he discusses it with a friend.

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He asks his friend, who's also a fellow sover what should we do about this?

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Because how can I let there be a Torah that people are reading from it that it isn't even kosher?

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They're not fulfilling their obligations and it's in my control to fix.

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And, yes, I need to pay my bills.

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But how can I let this go?

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Maybe I should do it for $500.

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And Kenelech HaChovr, this man had a great friend.

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The friend told him.

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You know what we got to do this.

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We got to make the right call here.

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This is what God wants us to do.

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I'll help you out.

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We'll go through it together.

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You know, we'll take the 500 bucks.

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Probably can buy no more than a schnitzel sandwich in Lakewood with it, but we'll share it and we'll do because it's what God wants from us.

00:03:05.395 --> 00:03:15.324
Sure enough, they make the necessary fixes, they inaugurate the shul.

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Things are going swimmingly and all of a sudden, after these two gentlemen have finished marking up and they finally have finished the Sefer Torah, it's ready to go and they put the Sefer Torah, the urn, back in the ark.

00:03:25.306 --> 00:03:32.475
They make their way out and one of the gentlemen needs to use the restroom.

00:03:32.475 --> 00:03:38.532
On his walk home he has a stomachache he's a human after all, but it's kind of an emergency.

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He's got nowhere to go and in a strange turn of events he sees that there's this funeral home of a.

00:03:44.349 --> 00:03:55.173
You know, it's where they would have funerals, it's on a cemetery type of thing and he walks in there and, sure enough, there's the funeral going on for a previously deceased Gentile.

00:03:55.173 --> 00:03:58.530
It wasn't a very large funeral, but the man's got to go to the bathroom.

00:03:58.530 --> 00:04:00.487
So we quickly find the place to go to the bathroom.

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They make him sign his name on the thing that he attended the funeral.

00:04:03.348 --> 00:04:10.733
He signs his name, these two gentlemen.

00:04:11.174 --> 00:04:18.596
They get a call from the government that says hey, we're here at the office of your downtown city.

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We need you to come ASAP.

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You are being called to court, subpoenaed to come down to court.

00:04:23.216 --> 00:04:26.733
These two gentlemen, a little bit of gas, not really sure what to make of it.

00:04:26.733 --> 00:04:29.504
They don't know, their life has kind of gone off the rails.

00:04:29.504 --> 00:04:33.517
They quickly scurry down to the office, to the courthouse.

00:04:33.517 --> 00:04:35.202
They say what's going on?

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What happened?

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Are we going to jail?

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They say no.

00:04:38.336 --> 00:04:42.612
It says over here that you guys both attended a funeral of this Gentile.

00:04:42.612 --> 00:04:48.990
They say, yeah, well, he didn't really have any friends, but he was fabulously wealthy.

00:04:48.990 --> 00:04:59.906
So he left over in his will that any person that attended his funeral that gave him that last honor should receive a portion of his inheritance.

00:04:59.906 --> 00:05:05.682
So here's your check both of you guys $61,000 for each of you.

00:05:07.391 --> 00:05:21.699
It's just an incredible story for many reasons reasons, but I think it brings home that we believe, as Jews, that people that make the right decision get rewarded and people that make the wrong decision get punished.

00:05:21.699 --> 00:05:23.451
That's the Ramban Sof Parshas.

00:05:23.451 --> 00:05:27.259
Bo Im Ya'asem Mitzvah Ya'sech Hanu, you're going to get paid for it.

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V'im Lav, you do the opposite.

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God forbid the opposite.

00:05:31.194 --> 00:05:35.103
But it's so cool just to hear a story how quickly they were paid back.

00:05:35.103 --> 00:05:46.718
And while a lot of times the payment is the best form of payment, it isn't no Bitcoin payment, but it's in the next world type of payment where you have eternal reward and God doesn't always pay us back in this world.

00:05:46.718 --> 00:05:53.377
But it's inspiring to hear somebody that made the right call and he was quickly paid back.

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The takeaway for us choose wisely.

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That made the right call and it was quickly paid back.

00:05:56.461 --> 00:06:09.339
The takeaway for us choose wisely, make the right call and remember that if you do the mitzvos, if you make the right decisions and use your Bechira to do what you think God wants well, then God will pay you back.

00:06:09.339 --> 00:06:15.533
And Yassi Chenu Scharo, you never lose out by making the right decision.

An Incredible Story! The Intersection of Faith, Finance, and the Sanctity of Torah Restoration

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